Clayton Turner, former director of NASA’s Langley Research Center, has been named associate administrator for space technology mission directorate at NASA. The appointment, announced by NASA Administrator and Wash100 Award winner Bill Nelson, will take effect immediately.
NASA said Monday Turner, who’s been serving as STMD associate administrator in an acting capacity since July, will resume his responsibility of overseeing the strategic planning, management and execution of the agency’s technology maturation and demonstration programs.
Clayton Turner’s NASA Career
Turner’s NASA career spans 30 years, with more than 16 spent at the Langley Research Center in Hampton, Virginia. He joined Langley in 2012 as center chief engineer and was gradually elevated to director of engineering, associate center director and deputy center director. The executive was appointed director of the center in 2019 and served in this leadership role for more than five years.
He assumed the acting associate administrator role of the STMD after the retirement of Kurt Vogel. Dawn Schaible, deputy director of the Glenn Research Center at the time, was selected to succeed Turner and lead the Langley Center as acting director.
Turner was instrumental in various NASA projects, including the Earth Science Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation Project and the flight test of the Orion Launch Abort System.
Bill Nelson on Clayton Turner
Nelson stated, “Under Turner’s skilled and steady hand, the Space Technology Mission Directorate will continue to do what it does best: help NASA push the boundaries of what’s possible and drive American leadership in space. I look forward to what STMD will achieve under Turner’s direction.”
